Dough!

This week has seen a few milestones for me and the kids.  Not only has Master 3 had his first two days of Kindy but Master 16 months and I have had our first two days alone together EVER....  And it has been fantastic!!!!  I had been so looking forward to having time alone with him so we could do activities that were age appropriate for him as normally he just has to sit on the side line while I do activities with his older brothers. 

The first day, we spent many hours dancing and singing along to the Wiggles - Master 16 months loooovvves to dance!!!  The second day it suddenly dawned on me that he is actually a lot more capable than I had given him credit for.  He is very much able to do the activities I have been forcing him to watch his brothers do.  All he needed to shine was my 100% attention.  Well, now he has it.

Frogs and Snails gave him an outstanding Christmas present of a home made play dough kit.  It came in its very own basket with fantastic utensils that lend themselves to the developing imaginations of little ones and grown ups alike.  I laid out our plastic table cloth and showed him how to roll the dough out and he had at it, enjoying himself immensely.  

Eventually, a routine built up and I could see I would have to, unfortunately, put a stop to it.  You see, he would roll, cut and eat, roll, cut and eat.  The rolling and cutting I could handle but the eating of the dough was getting to me.  Not because I was worried by what he was ingesting, it was home made play dough, all natural ingredients.  No, I worried because he was eating all the dough and soon there would be nothing left to play with (plus the salt content is rather high!).

                                         

                                                                                                               



















                Rolling                                                                                                     Cutting

             

     

                 Eating                                                                                                   Rolling

             Cutting                                                                                                    Eating

So, with my new Thermomix at hand (another story) I decided we would whip up another batch of dough that I didn't mind him eating in the slightest.  Having just bought a bag of almond kernels that morning I ground them down to almond meal in 5 seconds (God, I love my Thermomix) and added a few other ingredients and within 1 minute of starting I had a lovely biscuit dough ready for Master 16 months to roll, cut and eat!

Here he is helping me with the biscuit mixture.  Adding the vanilla essence to the mix. 

Taking a swig of the vanilla essence (just kidding, the lid was firmly on).

Carrying the tray to his rolling, cutting and eating table.  

Cutting out snowman and reindeer shapes with the play dough/cookie cutters.  I assure you I washed all the play dough off first!

Not a lot of biscuits here is there!  That is because he ate so much of the dough.  

   

What a good little helper he is!  He's such a big boy now!  When did my baby grow up?